Poll shows Scott is doing better with GOP base

Florida Gov. Rick Scott still has a long way to go to win re-election, but his aggressive ad campaign over the last few months appears to have at least improved his standing within the GOP ranks.

In December of 2012, just 55 percent of Republicans told pollsters with Quinnipiac University that they thought Scott deserved to be re-elected. Another 26 percent said no, with the rest undecided.

But the latest Quinnipiac poll released this week, shows Scott has greatly improved his standing with Republican voters. Asked if he deserves to be re-elected, 68 percent of Republicans now say yes, with 23 percent saying no. Another 9 percent are undecided.

Another measure of his improvement with Republicans can be seen in the head-to-head matchups with Democrat Charlie Crist.

Last June, 75 percent of Republicans picked Scott, with 13 percent picking Crist in a head-to-head matchup. Now, Republicans are picking Scott 79 percent of the time, against 12 percent for Crist.

Still there are reasons for concern for Scott’s campaign. Though Crist is pulling just 12 percent of Republicans at this point, that is 8 percentage points higher than what Democrat Alex Sink was getting from Republicans against Scott at a similar point in the campaign in 2010. Of course, back then, Scott was locked in a bitter GOP primary contest.

What’s it all mean? Certainly Scott has solidified a lot of support within Republican ranks, but Crist, a former Republican governor, is still winning over enough Republicans that it could make a difference in 2014.

Democrats are quick to point out that Sink only lost her campaign to Scott by 1 percentage point. If Crist just performs better with Republicans by 2-4 percent, it could be all he needs to win statewide.

Jeremy Wallace

Jeremy Wallace has covered politics for more than 15 years.
He can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4966.
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Last modified: July 24, 2014
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